An engineering system of the kind referred to at the beginning is known from Siemens Catalogue ST PCS 7, Chapter 3, May 2003 edition. This engineering system is a component of a process control system which controls a plant and is, in particular, provided for the configuration of hardware and/or software components, for the design of communications networks and continuous and sequential process operations, and also for the design of operating and observation strategies and for the creation of recipes for batch processes. The project design blocks required for designing and/or configuring a project which represents the automation equipment to be designed are components of a library which can be stored in a memory of a programming device or of a server. Furthermore, the programming devices, which are involved in design and/or configuration in a multiuser operation for example, can access this common library. The project design blocks of the automation equipment to be designed that are needed for a project comprising a plurality of part projects are saved in the form of copies in the programming devices, and design engineers have to copy the project design blocks themselves. These copies stored locally on the programming devices enable each part project to be processed autonomously, and an online connection to the server's library is initially no longer required. It is possible that the library will be updated, that is to say, new versions (revision levels) of these project design blocks will be stored in the library, in which case the design engineers are responsible for again storing appropriate copies of these new revision levels in the programming devices. This procedure is prone to error and involves a considerable amount of work in respect of the handling of the project design blocks.